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Happy Friday! Another two weeks have passed and we've just finished another internal playtest. What a great couple of weeks it has been!
Last time, there were dogs and rocks. There's been dogs and rocks for the last two editions. Like your shoes three weeks after a long hike, there's still some rocks in this one.
At this point I'm just trying to see how many rocks I can sneak into our newsletters until someone sends me an angry email. Or a happy one, telling me how much they love our rocks.
We value your thoughts! Write your positive/negative thoughts involving rocks and email us immediately!
We're not just dealing with rocks today though — there's also a daring, experimental new hub shape and some pretty colours!
That's what gaming's all about.
Here Comes The Hub, Doo-Doo-Doo
For as long as we've been working on MS80, the hubs that players need for on-the-fly engineering have stuck to relatively safe shapes. Cubes, L shapes, T shapes.
We don't talk about the polyhedron. Stop talking about the polyhedron. Do not think about the polyhedron. I hid it in that supply closet for a reason.
This week, Lucien has experimented with adding a funky new hub shape.
He hasn't come up with proper names for them, so he's gone with the Beatles' names instead, starting with everyone's favourite: George! Apparently.
I am both excited and terrified to find out what shapes he has for the rest of them. I mean, Ringo? Who knows what horrors he's capable of?
Early days yet, but Lucien threw a few of these guys into our playtesting levels today! It immediately yielded some bizarre and varied results, forcing us to think differently about player shape and our hub economy.
I've likened it to engineering using stolen pieces of household plumbing. That might be the vibe we're going for!
Laura's build was particularly nifty, mixing three George hubs with our cables and an offset gimble for visibility and a third weapon.
Rock 'n' Rollin'
You've reached the regularly scheduled rock section of our newsletter, bringing you ROCK, ROCK, and MORE ROCK every other Friday at 8pm BST.
THIS AIN'T YOUR GRANNY'S NEWSLETTER.
We've also got more liquid rock too, to go with last edition's "Danger Egg."
Laser Colours
Anyone who's ever watched a sci-fi movie will tell you that green lasers means they're good guys and red lasers mean they're bad! So when you look up at the big screen after scrolling on your handheld small screen for 20 minutes, you know who's shooting who.
Well we aren't doing that at MS80. That'd be way too easy. Anyway, you already know who the good guys and bad guys are! You're the good guy!
You've always been the good guy, haven't you?
Lucien has implemented a new laser colour system, where different colours show different laser intensities and power levels!
You might not be able to look at the lasers and tell what's good and what's evil, but you'll know what's killin' and what ain't!
Looking Ahead
Our daily design meetings continue to transform the Interchange Transit Yards level, with a whole new outdoor section in an early prototyping stage. Remember last edition's "annoying" and "lethal" ambient temperatures? They're gonna be important!
The train is coming along well and should be here right on time! That's how you know we're making science fiction. Little joke for you English people out there. I love TransPennine Express and want nothing but the best for them.
We've had a bit of a power and thermodynamic tweak this week. We're not too far off the mark, but there's some more work needed to make it land just right for our combat. The team all agreed this week's playtest was the most fun we've had since we started testing!
I know what I'm most excited for though: the other four Beatles! Yeah, that's right, FOUR!